There’s still time to register for this weekend’s Mythologium meeting from the International Society of Mythology. www.ismythology.com/mythologium2...

The NASA DARES Task Force 2 is seeking input from those currently pursuing careers in astrobiology regarding the question: "What tools, resources, and opportunities have impacted your astrobiology career so far?" docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

BMSIS scientist, Dr. Graham Lau, argues that the future of our world must include planetary scale geoengineering in the most recent piece in the News and Views section of the BMSIS website. bmsis.org/terraforming...

Latest talk at IAU404:Technosignatures - a fascinating talk on the reanalysis and true natural origin of the Wow signal by @profabelmendez.bsky.social 🧪🔭 The level of technoarchaeology necessary here is awesome!

Our IAU symposium on Advancing the Search for Technosignatures is up and running! Stoked for all of the science to explore this week on exploring signs of technological activity that we may find beyond Earth.

We have officially launched the applications for the 2026 BMSIS Young Scientist Program! Learn more and view our available projects for this year here: bmsis.org/ysp/projects/

In this new several part series of Astrobiology 101, we’ll explore why water is the solvent for life as we know it and whether other solvents might be possible for alien life. cosmobiota.substack.com/p/astrobiolo...

Lipids are kind of the ignored middle children of origins of life research. It's time they got a bit of attention, too! This week's post is a Q&A with geoscientist-turned-??? (interdisciplinary folks know the struggle) @jamessaenz.bsky.social about why there's no cutting the fat from origins. 🧪

Registration for the IAU online symposium (#404) is due by Friday, 20 February. IAUS 404: Advancing the Search for Technosignatures will take place 2-6 March and explore the current science of technosignature research. Learn more and register at iaus404.bmsis.org

A little explainer for those who might wonder why the main character says that "two times e to the two-i-pi" is the answer to the cube root of eight in the first chapter of Project Hail Mary. cosmobiota.substack.com/p/that-two-t...

IT'S BOOK LAUNCH DAY 📖🚀✨ You can now find my first popular science book, Time's Second Arrow, wherever books are sold. Please help spread the word!

Our book club will be reading Project Hail Mary this month! I'm so excited to read it again, and do some deep dives on the science and ideas that Andy Weir brought to the pages. Really hoping the film coming out soon does justice to the book. cosmobiota.substack.com/p/february-b...

Interested in learning more about student travel trips I’ve led around the world or the DC to Houston trip focused on aerospace where I will serve as an expert this summer? Check out the webinar this Wednesday for Putney Student Travel! goputney.com/watch-webina...

Jessica Xhumari, one of my Visiting Schooars at BMSIS, recently helped the folks at Melody Sheep with some research on a new video (linked in the post), and it seemed like a good time for talking a bit about the potential for life to travel between worlds. cosmobiota.substack.com/p/could-we-a...

A few little tidbits in The Cosmobiologist today about changes in time and space and Chapters 7-9 of Carl Sagan's Cosmos. cosmobiota.substack.com/p/changes-in...

Cold temperatures and severe winter weather are on the way for much of the U.S. this weekend. Seems like a good time to review a little of the science on why snow appears white ❄️ www.popsci.com/science/why-...

Our new paper exploring the idea of building a foundation model for astrobiological research is now out! Enjoy!

Turn conceited clowns into kings and the state becomes a cruel satire with real consequences. open.substack.com/pub/robertre...

It's those pesky facts again.

Early registration for our online symposium on technosignature science in March ends today! Check out the link and register now 🚀

I’d post a lot more here if it weren’t for the stupid character limit. Some of us actually enjoy writing and reading more than just hot takes and mini bits of information. I never liked reading threads of posts on Twitter and don’t like it here either.

Today is the last day to submit an abstract for the 2026 Astrobiology Science Conference (AbSciCon). If you’re considering a session to share your work related to the science and philosophy related to astrobiology and cosmology, consider our session on the cosmic mirror! www.agu.org/abscicon

"They don't even bother to lie badly anymore"

Now I feel ever more that I need to write a short essay on what it was like to visit the Ancient Aliens theme park in Switzerland, which honestly was more of a shrine for Erich von Däniken to celebrate his own life more than anything.

Amidst all of hte choas and uncertainty, we can still experience the profound and beautiful. In my most recent piece on The Cosmobiologist, I argue that everyone should, if possible, try to experience a total solar eclipse in their lifetime.

Some people are just now coming back “online” after the holidays and time with family and actual living. I think this week is a great one to practice patience and to give grace. Not everyone will be able to jump back into things at full speed.

Still blown away by how many people want to join my astrobiology book club!

I’ve announced the start of our January book club reading. We’re going to start with reading Carl Sagan’s Cosmos together! Will also be a great time to revisit the original television series. open.substack.com/pub/cosmobio...

The reading list and schedule for the 2026 Astrobiology and Panzoic Book Club is now out! cosmobiota.substack.com/p/the-astrob...

On the 13th day of Christmas that true love better also be buying me a ranch with enough acreage and supplies to support all these friggin' birds.

In Probable Impossibilities, Alan Lightman explores how our current knowledge of the universe suggests that from the earliest recognizable time to the heat death of the universe covers something like 82 powers of ten in relative time.

One intriguing idea I picked up in Alan Lightman's book Probable Impossibilities is that: Halving something about the size of a human body 33 times gets to the size of atoms. Doubling something about the size of a human body 30 times gets to the size of a star like our Sun.

My newest piece in The Cosmobiologist explores the range of alien invasion scenarios and some of the things we've imagined could be terrifying about contact with alien life. cosmobiota.substack.com/p/alien-inva...

Something overheard at #AGU: Man: “I miss the beer” Woman: “ I don’t… I don’t miss certain old men coming up to me and being like “your science is so good, that’s such smart science to come from someone so beautiful” Yeah, ick. Remember that many of us are having different lived experiences.

Heading off to New Orleans for the American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting. Never been there before, so I’m super excited to see the city while also getting to represent Blue Marble Space at the meeting. #AGU

Lorena Soriano is conducting a stakeholder analysis for her Masters thesis on space sustainability. This survey will look at environmental, social, and governance items in space exploration. 🔗 harvard.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

My PhD advisor, Dr. Alexis Templeton, was recognized with the 126th Distinguished Research Lecture at the University of Colorado Boulder last month! www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFPp...

Exploring the nature of challenge in episodes of Foundation and Star Trek: Voyager, my own physical challenge during a recent ayahuasca ceremony, and why I think Yoda didn’t do such a good job supporting Luke after the cave scene in Empire Strikes Back. cosmobiota.substack.com/p/the-road-o...

Are you working on how space inspires awe, alters worldviews, and shapes human behaviors? Submit an abstract to the session that @cosmobiologist.bsky.social, Julia DeMarines, Mark Neyrinck, and I are convening at #AbSciCon26!

My episode with John Michael Godier for the Event Horizon Show is now live! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmse...

Some thoughts this Friday on how to use AI well, issues with sending messages to aliens, and a recent paper suggesting our brains have five ages of life. cosmobiota.substack.com/p/thinking-w...

I have a new article out in Meditation Magazine on the nature of hope, hopelessness, and awe. The piece is titled “Finding Hope and Awe in the Futures We Can Imagine”. You can read it in this free digital version of the issue (and order a print copy, if you’d like!). hope.meditationmag.com

My previous PhD advisor is giving a talk tomorrow for the 2025-26 Distinguished Research Lectureships at CU Boulder! www.colorado.edu/researchinno...

We can imagine different parts of ourselves, but we can’t place everything bad against everything good and assume it’s just so simple as giving energy to one or the other. cosmobiota.substack.com/p/the-two-wo...

Some brief Friday Meanderings on misinformation and AI panspermia, the nature of time and our perception of it, as well as addressing the claimed anomalies about 3I/ATLAS cosmobiota.substack.com/p/ai-pansper...

I’m stoked to join in for a panel on space science at the Space Education Summit today. Lots of cool talks throughout the day from some incredible people in realms of space exploration and the space industry! spaceeducation.squarespace.com/schedule

If biospheres on alien worlds develop predation as a form of symbiosis, I have to wonder what similarities and differences there may be to life as we know it.

Our newest article on SAGANet from Catherine Maggiori is an exploration of the new paper out by Nozair Khawaja and team on the analysis of ejected ice grains from Enceladus. www.saganet.org/articles/cas...

Language may be humanity’s oldest technology, and, as Mark Pagel argued in 2011, language may have developed to solve a crisis of visual theft. But would alien civilizations have any form of language similar to our own? cosmobiota.substack.com/p/language-a...